ACAC competes at elite meets

Wednesday

Mar 27, 2013 at 5:30 AM

The Atomic City Aquatic Club recently wrapped up its 62nd short-course season with three prestigious events — the Eastern Section Southern Zone Age Group Championships in Greensboro, N.C.; the Spring Senior Championships in Nashville; and the National Club Swimming Association Junior National Swimming Championships in Orlando, Fla.

Chip Fischer, Special to The Oak Ridger

The Atomic City Aquatic Club recently wrapped up its 62nd short-course season with three prestigious events — the Eastern Section Southern Zone Age Group Championships in Greensboro, N.C.; the Spring Senior Championships in Nashville; and the National Club Swimming Association Junior National Swimming Championships in Orlando, Fla.

In the Age Group Championships — the top swimming event in the Southeastern region for swimmers 14 and under — ACAC swimmers bested their times in 21 of 39 races. Great performances were put in by Cameron Holcomb, Sydney Goodman, Stevie Logan and Colby Maupin. Both 10-and-under boys relays ended up in 11th place overall.

In the Senior Sectional Championships — the top swimming event in the Southeastern region for the older swimmers — five of nine races were for best times. Chandler Ott and Margaret Stansberry swam very well and both had drops in time.

In the Junior National Championships — a USA Swimming-sanctioned event that drew 1,790 elite swimmers and 911 total relays from 255 teams from across the entire country — best times were swam in four of 14 races. Kent Eldreth swam individual races, while Sam Schechter, Jonny Goss, Kent Eldreth, Jack O’Connor and J.T. Hinsley swam individual time trials.

The ACAC boys relays placed third out of the five teams represented from the Southeast in all four events for which they qualified, moving up places in seeding in all events. For a team to even have enough qualifiers to swim four of the relays was impressive enough. To place so well and move up seeds was even more impressive.

“The honor and importance of attending a national-level event like the Junior Nationals cannot be overstated,” said coach Betsy Hondorf. “There were teams and swimmers from as far away as Washington state and California. The best of the best. Our boys have worked hard since August with this meet as their goal, and they did a tremendous job.”

The results served as a prelude to bigger things to come.

Coach Mike Bowman said, “I’m so proud. Once again we had more swimmers make cuts to the higher-level events. Four of our six Junior National swimmers made it for the first time.

“Our seniors were outstanding. And our younger swimmers at the Age Group Championships gave us a sneak peek of Senior Sectional and Junior National swimmers of the future.

“We have a crew of eight-and-under youngsters steadily improving, and new swimmers joining all the time. The future of ACAC is bright, and I predict we’ll be seeing even better results in the years to come.”

If you would like to get your young swimmer into the Atomic City Aquatic Club, visit the team’s website, www.swim4acac.com, for more information.